But poetry is of the Highest. It is the Divine Voice,
always, that we recognize through the poet's, whenever he most
deeply moves our souls.
Reason and observation, as well as my own experience, assure me
also that it is great--poetry even the greatest--which the
youngest crave, and upon which they may be fed, because it is the
simplest. Nature does not write down her sunsets, her starry
skies, her mountains, and her oceans in some smaller style, to
suit the comprehension of little children; they do not need any
such dilution. So I go back to the, American First Class Book,"
and affirm it to have been one of the best of reading-books,
because it gave us children a taste of the finest poetry and
prose which had been written in our English tongue, by British
and by American authors. Among the pieces which left a permanent
impression upon my mind I recall Wirt's description of the
eloquent blind preacher to whom he listened in the forest
wilderness of the Blue Ridge, a remarkable word-portrait, in
which the very tones of the sightless speaker's voice seemed to
be reproduced.
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